The hissing sound of arrows slicing through the air could be heard a thousandfold from all around them. Patriarch Qiang Lin quietly took the sounds in before loosening his own arrow. He wasn’t a particularly skilled archer, but someone of his strength would never miss an easy mark such as this.

  Pierced through the neck, one of the riders slid off his horse, the animal running on without them. Unfortunately, his seemed to be the only arrow to land with such success. The attackers were clad in heavy steel armor and were ducking behind large wooden shields that they had strapped to their arms. Some of them were getting wounded, but very few seriously.

  No matter. They didn’t need to all be killed, repelling them was probably enough. From the way they had immediately stormed them, they hadn’t come here to hold a prolonged siege, they wanted to make this quick. If enough of them were wounded, they might be forced to give up and retreat.

  After closing in through two more waves of arrows, the attackers retaliated for the first time. They were carrying crossbows that they could fire off before the next wave of arrows could be shot.

  As the bolts flew through the air, a transparent golden barrier flickered into existence from which they harmlessly bounced off. The sect’s main defensive formation.

  Qiang Lin allowed himself to grin at its sight. This was his own contribution to his sect’s legacy. A gilded shield, protecting it from all harm. Well, his in the sense that he had paid for it. He wasn’t particularly skilled in the art of formations himself.

  There were many forms of defensive formations that were employed by sects. Some were offensive, targeting intruders with qi-based attacks, others were supportive, strengthening the defenders and others yet were simply repulsive, like this one. A plain, old barrier was perhaps not the most innovative of defenses, but it was certainly effective.

  This one in particular was also most admirable in that it drew on ambient Qi and as such needed neither spirit stones nor anyone feeding it Qi to sustain itself. A very profitable solution.

  Another wave of arrows impacted the enemy. They were still approaching, even though they were closing in on the barrier. Qiang Lin was starting to wonder what they were trying to do here. They’d need to stop soon, otherwise they would just crash into it.

  Suddenly, the rider at the front jumped up into the air. Since he then continued to rise up further, it wasn’t hard to figure out that this was the Dao Contemplation Cultivator that was leading the attack. Qiang Lin couldn’t make out a whole lot of his features through the light of the barrier, but he could see that the man wasn’t wearing armor and had a long, pointy beard which was just as black as his robes.

  He was still not certain what the man’s plan was, when an enormous amount of lightning Qi started gathering around him. Qiang Lin could feel its strength even at this distance. He quickly fired another arrow, this one aimed at the man in question, many of his subordinates doing the same.

  None of the arrows reached their goal, burning up the instance they came close to him, like his sheer presence was too much for them to handle. As more and more lightning Qi gathered, dancing around the man with blinding brightness, Qiang Lin finally understood what he was going to do.

  And in that very moment, he launched a massive, sustained stream of lightning against the barrier.

  For a single second, it looked like it would hold. In the next, a million hair-thin cracks spread out from the point of impact. Finally, after a mere three seconds, the barrier shattered like glass, its broken pieces fading out of existence the instant they no longer supported each other.

  With an ear-shattering roar, the remaining lightning impacted the sect’s wall, ripping a massive hole right through it before disbanding into the ground. Dust and debris were flung up into the air, obscuring sight of the undoubtedly terrible fate of those who had stood at the site of impact.

  Qiang Lin stared at the disaster incredulously. One attack? That was all it had taken to destroy the sect’s most powerful defensive formation?

  As the attackers rushed through the space where there had previously been a barrier unimpeded, Qiang Lin looked up at the man responsible for doing so much damage in an instant. Now that he could catch a clearer sight of him, his fear turned into cold terror.

  That wasn’t just any cultivator, it was one of the most dangerous ones he knew off. It was the famed and feared strategist of the Roaring Thunder Sect, the cunning mind behind their patriarch: Elder Song Fan.

  …

  Qiao and Zixin were locked in a close battle. They whirled around with their swords, each trying to gain an advantage over the other.

  As Liu Wei quietly watched on, he couldn’t help but feel reminded of the war that was raging on far in the distance. They wouldn’t be fighting in it, even if the Lunar Peaks Sect had been involved, but it was still the grim reality that this was the very thing they were training for. Not this war in particular, but the inevitability of future conflicts.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  It was easy to see these training fights as a sport, a competition, a game, as long as the most blood that would ever flow were a few unfortunate scratches. But to forget that they were merely mimicking a much more real, much more serious reality, was the privilege of the young, the innocent.

  It could be seen in the way they engaged with the fights, that they had not yet experienced –and survived – a real one. There was a lightness in every movement that the older members simply didn’t show when they trained here.

  Everyone dealt with it in their own way. Some were more bothered than others by it. Some vowed to try to never do it again, others simply viewed it as a necessity. Most as old as Liu Wei became rather blunted towards it. Some sick souls even secretly enjoyed it. But no one stayed completely unchanged by it. No one carried on with the innocence of the young. And here they were, training these young to one day take their place in the battles.

  If only the world was a kinder place…

  Liu Wei turned away from the two fighters and walked on. He had a full schedule to meet. Still, as he walked, his gaze remained lost in the distance. Somewhere out there, a war was raging on. In this very moment, as they were enjoying the peace, others were fighting for their lives…

  He was becoming more sentimental, wasn’t he?

  …

  Qiang Lin groaned as he slowly sat up, leaning on what was left of the building behind him, ignoring the increasingly strong pulsing in his head. Using one of his hands to support himself in that position, he carefully felt the edges of the wound on his sleeve with the other, flinching at the pain that erupted even at the slightest touch.

  How long had he been out for? The last thing he could remember was that chain, buzzing with electricity, rushing towards his face… then darkness.

  White spots danced across his eyes as he looked around, trying to orient himself. He had been flung quite a distance away from where he remembered fighting, the destroyed building behind him apparently what he had crashed into. It was – no, had been – a small house, perhaps a servant’s residence or something similar. Well, there were more important things to worry about right now.

  He couldn’t see any people from the position he was at, neither friend nor enemy. He also couldn’t hear any fighting; everything was eerily quiet.

  Next, his sight fell on his sword – or rather what was left of it. His prized blade, the pride of his family, had been shattered into a hundred pieces, a few of which lay strewn about around him. The handle was laying directly next to him, he had probably only let go off it when impacting the building.

  It was this sight, the sword of his ancestors shattered in his own hands, that made the severity of the situation truly dawn on Qiang Lin. For a long while, he could only stare at the handle. Then, even though it was broken beyond any hope of repair, he reached for it.

  Before he could grasp it, a boot slammed down on it, making him flinch back in shock. Looking up, he looked directly into the face of the man he had failed to notice the approach off.

  “Patriarch Lin, I see you have awakened.”

  Song Fan picked up the handle, turning it around and inspecting it with visible disinterest before tossing it away into the nearby shrubbery. Qiang Lin could only weakly raise an arm as if to protest, before letting it sink again.

  “Don’t worry, you won’t be needing that anymore.”

  His voice was calm and soft, so much so that it could almost be mistaken for friendliness. His ice-cold eyes glaring down on him in contempt made it abundantly clear that that wasn’t the case.

  “The fight is already over. Your sect members have surrendered or been captured, and your elders have all agreed to capitulate. In our generosity, we have decided to accept their pleas. The Silver Blood Sect is now subservient to the Mighty Roaring Thunder Sect.”

  The tall, sleek man casually strolled around as he talked, his hands clasped behind his back.

  “It is the right decision, I assure you. That way, the sect will have a spot in the realm’s new order. Only that way…”

  Qiang Lin bit his lip. So this was bigger than just his sect. In truth, he had already guessed as much; the Roaring Thunder Sect wouldn’t have attacked a sect under the Parting Clouds Sect’s protection without assuming that they would face retaliation.

  “All sect members will be joining the war effort right away. The only remaining question…”

  Song Fan’s eyes fell back down on Qiang Lin. Their pale blue color seemed to pierce right through him, making him shiver to his very core.

  “Is what to do with you.”

  Qiang Lin wanted to plead for his life, but he couldn’t move a muscle.

  “You see, it would be easy to just kill you, right here and now. You are not in a condition to run away, much less defend yourself. It would send a nice example for the other sects, not to cross our path. You should have immediately yielded the moment you spotted our mighty force on the horizon. It might teach the others not to repeat your mistake.”

  He paused. Qiang Lin could only stare at the blade that hung off Song Fan’s belt. It was crusted with freshly dried blood. Was it his own? That of his sect members? He didn’t know.

  “On the other hand, that would be such a waste of your talent, don’t you agree? Centuries of cultivation only to suffer a death that amounts to nothing. No heroic sacrifice to win a war, no last roar of defiance to protect your sect, not even a peaceful final breath as the tides of time finally reach you. A story cut short.”

  Despite his words, Song Fan’s voice didn’t carry the slightest bit of pity. If anything, it sounded mocking.

  “As we have already established, I am a very generous person, so I’ll let you choose your own fate. You can die here, unrelenting in your loyalty to the Parting Clouds Sect, a soon defunct organization. Be aware that all your descendants and all who share your blood from three generations back will share that fate. Or you can bend the knee, swearing to serve me, Xing Zhou and the Roaring Thunder Sect as your new masters. I’m fine with either.”

  Qiang Lin paused. Betray the Parting Clouds Sect? The sect that his ancestors had served for generations? That had always treated them justly? Could he truly do that, even if just for self-preservation?

  Yes.

  His blood was the most important thing in this world to him, and it had always been to his ancestors. The Sect’s name hadn’t been chosen by accident after all.

  “I… I denounce the Parting Clouds Sect as the Silver Blood Sect’s masters and swear to serve the Roaring Thunder Sect with blade and soul.”

  A thin smile spread across Song Fan’s face.

  “Very well. You have a day to tend to your wounds as my men rest and restock here… and as they claim the well-deserved spoils of their victory. After that, you will ride with us. We have a lot of sects to visit.”

  He started strolling off, only to stop again and turn around once more.

  “Oh yeah, and bid farewell to the members of your family. Since you have just proven that your oaths of loyalty aren’t worth particularly much, another contingent of my men will be taking them back to the Roaring Thunder Sect.

  “Just. In. Case.”

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